Break

After a moment's hesitation, Bai Ina used the crowd as cover to sneak up behind Sa Kaiyang and jabbed him right in the butt with his sword tip!

"Ow—!"

With a scream, Sa Kaiyang leaped into the air.

The agonized cry made everyone freeze. The Pirate Empress frowned and looked behind Sa Kaiyang. Almost at once, her gaze locked onto Bai Ina.

"Fuck, brat, why'd you stab me in the ass?" Sa Kaiyang turned around and launched into a tirade.

But Bai Ina paid him no attention. His body tensed as he stared at the Pirate Empress, cursing inwardly. He had immediately retreated into the crowd after stabbing Sa Kaiyang. Given the Empress's position, there was no way she should have been able to see him.

Yet in the blink of an eye, Bai Ina felt an intensely oppressive gaze lock onto him. An invisible wave of Conqueror's Haki bore down on him, making even a single step feel incredibly difficult.

"Not even a brat can escape my charm, for I am the most beautiful woman in the world!" The Pirate Empress ran a hand through her long hair, revealing her collarbones, which were like a work of art.

"Lady Empress!"

At the sight, the crew members aboard both the warship and the Kuja Pirates' ship screamed.

Even Bai Ina felt his mind reel. It had nothing to do with love or the Empress's beauty; it was the terrifying charm of her Devil Fruit ability. Only someone like Luffy, who didn't even possess the emotion of love, could possibly resist it.

Bai Ina, however, was an exception. The side effect of his Devil Fruit meant he was destined to fall madly in love with any woman he had slept with. That obsessive love brought him back to his senses after only a brief moment of daze.

"Mero Mero Mellow!"

Just then, the Empress formed a heart shape with her hands, and pink beams swept across the entire warship. Everyone was struck by them, including Bai Ina.

The movements of everyone touched by the pink light froze. In the blink of an eye, they had all turned into stone statues.

"Have some people move the supplies from the warship onto our ship, then destroy the warship. There are plenty of Sea Kings in the Calm Belt anyway." After finishing, the Empress didn't even glance below. She turned to Marigold beside her and gave the order.

"..."

But Marigold didn't answer. She stared blankly toward the warship.

"What's wrong?"

The Pirate Empress frowned. Following Marigold's gaze, she spotted a white-haired brat among the stone statues, glaring at her with a dark expression.

"Was your attention elsewhere?"

Seeing that Bai Ina hadn't been turned to stone, the Empress first assumed he'd been distracted. A trace of irritation appeared on her lovely face. "You were looking at something else despite my beauty?"

"Mero Mero Mellow!"

At that instant, Bai Ina moved. He charged straight through the pink beams, drawing Black Blade Dawn in a flash.

"Iai Slash—Elegy of the Soul!"

A surge of frigid, ghostly energy engulfed the entire area. The overwhelming cold made it seem as though the region had been dragged into the depths of the underworld. A hazy figure wielding a greatsword suddenly appeared behind Bai Ina, as if he had grown several times larger.

As Bai Ina swung his sword, the hazy figure behind him swung its greatsword toward the Empress's neck.

He had put nearly all his strength into this strike. Bai Ina knew that if he didn't take advantage of the instant of shock caused by his ability nullifying the Empress's Devil Fruit power, he had no hope of winning.

As for negotiating with the Empress as a Marine, Bai Ina had never even considered it. Anyone familiar with the original story knew that despite her beauty, the Empress had a heart as venomous as a snake's.

She was arrogant, willful, and utterly contemptuous of others. She would kick aside any small animal that crossed her path. In the original story, she threw the former empress of Amazon Lily out a window and personally destroyed the statues the children had made for her. She even turned the Marines who came to summon her to stone, because she didn't want to take part in the Summit War but also didn't want to give up her Shichibukai position.

So never try to reason with this venomous woman—unless she falls in love with you.

In truth, though it seemed like a long time had passed, it had all happened in an instant. Bai Ina charged up to the Empress and swung Black Blade Dawn at her neck. He was so fast that even the two Boa sisters beside the Empress couldn't react in time.

'Clang—'

But just as Bai Ina's blade was about to touch the Empress's neck, a slender, delicate finger appeared along its path as if by teleportation.

It was just one finger, yet it stood like a pillar holding up the heavens. When it met Black Blade Dawn, it didn't even tremble. A terrifying force surged from the slender fingertip, scattering the shadow formed from yin energy behind Bai Ina and completely nullifying his devastating attack without so much as a ripple.

Bai Ina's face changed at once, shock filling his eyes. He had known there was a vast gap between him and the Empress, but the sight before him still left him shaken.

But in the next instant, his gaze sharpened, and the Black Blade in his right hand slipped free.

"May Rain—Ghost Slash!"

The moment Bai Ina released the sword, he pitched forward. His left hand caught the blade and continued its slash toward the Empress's neck.

"Perfume Femur!"

With a sharp cry, the woman twisted sideways at an impossibly flexible angle and kicked. Her long, slender leg slammed into Bai Ina's left arm, carrying a fearsome gust of wind.

'Bang—'

The kick, clad in Armament Haki, struck with several times the force of the giant beast's attack from not long ago. Bai Ina's body shot backward, and he spewed a mouthful of blood. Like a cannonball, he crashed into the deck of the Kuja Pirate Ship.

'Boom—'

With a loud crash, the deck where Bai Ina landed shattered, sending splinters flying.

"Ugh..."

Bai Ina spat blood. Every bone in his body had broken in that instant, and pain surged through him. He writhed with a contorted expression, but his injuries made it incredibly difficult to move even a finger. His left arm had also been completely turned to stone.

'Tap—'

At the crisp click of a heel hitting the deck, the Empress leaped down from the giant snake's head and walked slowly toward Bai Ina, who lay sprawled on the ground.

It had all happened in an instant. Only now did the others aboard the Kuja Pirate Ship react.

"How dare you attack Lady Snake Princess!"

"That detestable man deserves to die! How could he—how could he attack Lady Snake Princess?"

"Elder Sister, are you all right?"

"Cut that man to pieces!"

"..."

The deck of the Kuja Pirate Ship erupted in a clamor, but one wave of the Empress's hand silenced them at once.

"Why weren't you turned to stone?" The Empress walked right up to Bai Ina and looked down at him, her expression turning angry for the first time. Her beautiful face was murderous. "You ignored my beauty and even dared to attack me."

"How could this happen? How could anyone not fall at my feet?" As she spoke, the Empress grabbed Bai Ina by the hair and lifted him up, looking at him coldly. "I cannot accept the existence of a man like you."

"Ptooey—"

But at that moment, Bai Ina did something that stunned everyone. He spat a mouthful of blood-flecked saliva straight onto the Empress's exquisite face.

As the Empress stared at him in shock, the corner of Bai Ina's mouth curled into a mad grin. "B-bitch!"

"..."

Everyone aboard the Kuja Pirate Ship, including the Empress, froze. They stared blankly at the bloody saliva trickling down from the Empress's forehead. The deck fell utterly silent.

"Vmmm—"

After a long, long while...

An invisible force shot skyward like a raging storm, scattering the clouds above. Most of the people aboard the Kuja Pirate Ship rolled their eyes and collapsed.

The steady thud of bodies hitting the deck continued, but the Empress paid them no attention. She stared at Bai Ina with murderous intent. Then she moved in a flash, grabbed him by the hair, and slammed him hard onto the deck.

'Crack—'

The impact shattered Bai Ina's petrified left arm from the shoulder down, scattering the pieces across the deck.

###